“Mr. Buell proves he has real talent…. The author’s choice of a mystery or suspense story format to serve his serious purpose reminds one of Graham Greene’s novels, but The Pyx is not just another in a long line of imitations.” --The Critic

“One of the most unusual novels of the year.” -- The Los Angeles Times

Frances Shelley Wees has established herself long since as Canada’s
outstanding expert in the subtle art of the soft-spoken psychological thriller.
The Keys of My Prison confirms her rank. –Ottawa Citizen,
A slyly suspenseful drama of identity theft. –The Quill & Quire

Austrian aristocrat Franz Loebek lands in Canada penniless, having lost everything in the violent upheavals brought by the Second World War. In Montreal he finds the Old World sophistication of London and Paris mixed with the youthful vibrancy of New York. But Loebek’s adopted city is an open city, and he unwillingly becomes drawn into the violent underworld of illegal gambling, all the while maintaining a front as he moves amongst Montreal’s most privileged. Gambling with Fire is the story of one man’s struggle to navigate illicit and dangerous waters to finally find stability and peace.
Originally published in 1969, Gambling with Fire followed The Crime on Cote des Neiges (1951), Murder Over Dorval (1952) and Body on Mount Royal (1953) as David Montrose’s fourth and final novel. The author died while it was in production. This Ricochet Books edition, the first in forty-seven years, marks its paperback debut.

Ricochet Books

Ricochet Books is a series of vintage noir mysteries edited by Brian Busby.

Véhicule Press launched its Ricochet series of vintage noir mysteries with The Crime on Cote des Neiges —a hardboiled detective novel set in Montreal originally published in 1951. At the centre of this novel, and the two others by David Montrose, is the hard-drinking, hard-working private dick, Russell Teed.

First Edition 1951 back cover:

"There were two blondes and a brunette. One of them had killed John Sark. Detective Sergeant Framboise thought it was Inez Sark. Inez had left her parents’ thirty-five room shack in Westmount to marry John Sark, the biggest bootlegger Montreal had ever known. That, said Framboise, was in itself motive enough. But Russell Teed knew that there was an earlier Mrs. Sark who had an even better motive. East side, west side, all over town Russ chased clues, trying to keep the gorgeous Inez out of jail. If he had to shoot up a couple of characters and bust up a drug ring in his search to lay bare Sark’s lovelife, well, that was all part of the service of Russell Teed Investigations."

About the editor

Brian Busby is the editor of Ricochet Books.His biography of John Glassco, A Gentleman of Pleasure, was published in 2011 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. He is the author of the blog: The Dusty Bookcase. A Montrealer, he now lives in St. Marys, Ontario.